UBC #2 VETO Pack

UBC #2 VETO Pack

Tossups

1. The March 9, 2009 issue of The New Yorker included an excerpt from this writer’s final novel The Pale King. This will be his third novel, the first being 1987’s The Broom of the System. Other notable books include the short story collections Oblivion and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and non-fiction collections A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again and Consider the Lobster, but it’s his second novel, which takes its’ title from a phrase Hamlet used to describe Yorick, that is his best-known work. FTP, identify this late auther of Infinite Jest.

ANSWER: David Foster Wallace

1. Colossus in Astonishing X-Men #1. Sherlock Holmes in “The Adventure of the Empty House.” Jake Chambers in Stephen King’s Dark Tower and Buffy the Vampire Slayer both did this multiple times, while Battlestar Galactica’s Cylons fought a Civil War over whether they should retain this ability, which they lost when the Hub was destroyed. FTP, identify this unlikely event, common in Fiction, which some believe Jesus Christ pulled off for real.

ANSWER: Ressurection; accept equivalent answers as long as they include the basic idea of dying and returning to life.

1. His domestic achievements included concluding the Lateran Treaty between Italy and the Holy See; however, it’s less clear if he accomplished the public transit-related domestic achievement with which he is most famously associated. In any event, any domestic success was soon overshadowed by his disastrous efforts to regain his country’s ancient Mediterranean Empire, a campaign which led to his bloody death at the hands of Partisans. FTP, identify this Italian Fascist Leader.

ANSWER; Benito Mussolini

1. In the legend that gives this natural wonder its’ name, it was once connected to a similar rock formation on the island of Staffa. These rocks were formed in the Paleogene period by the same phenomenon of contraction when lava cooled quickly that created this better-known basalt formation in County Antrim. FTP, identify this UNESCO World Heritage Site, named for its’ mythical creator Finn MacCool, that is Northern Ireland’s most-visited tourist attraction.

ANSWER: The Giant’s Causeway

1. His early endeavours included acquiring his family’s struggling Great Lakes Shipping Company, Kinsman Marine Transit Company, and brought it back to profitability. He inspired Goose Gossage’s trademark horseshoe moustache look when he tried to force the player to shave. His most infamous clash, however, was with Don Mattingly, who was benched for refusing to shave his mullet. FTP, identify this recently-deceased New York Yankees Owner, who appeared as George Costanza’s employer on Seinfeld.

ANSWER: George Steinbrenner

1. The most famous artistic depiction of this man differs from most in that it appears to capture a moment before his most famous battle. Its’ contraposto pose conveys the idea of a body in motion, while the statue’s gaze conveys a sense of serenity mixed with apprehension. It was more usual to depict him after the battle with his opponent’s decapitated head, as is seen in Donatello’s sculpture where he stands over the head holding a large sword. FTP, identify this Old Testament King and subject of a statue by Michaelangelo.

ANSWER: David

1. Brantford’s Mardi Tindal currently holds the position of Moderator of this Church, having been elected in 2009 at the 40th. General Council. The first Moderator, George Pidgeon, was chosen from the Presbyterian Church in order to encourage more Presbyterians to join the newly-formed Church in 1925. Roughly one-third of Presbyterians chose to continue as an independent Presbyterian Church, while the other two-thirds joined the Methodist Church and the Congregational Union in, FTP, what most prominent Canadian Protestant denomination?

ANSWER: The United Church of Canada

1. He was ranked as the second-most influential psychotherapist of all time in a 1982 poll of psychotherapists, behind Carl Rogers but ahead of Sigmund Freud. He first began to develop a behavioural approach to is own problems when as a shy young man he forced himself to speak to 100 women within a month. He is credited with laying the groundwork for what would become Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and also for his pioneering views on sexuality, most famously in 1958’s Sex Without Guilt. FTP, identify this psychotherapist, the founder of Rational Emotive Therapy.

ANSWER: Albert Ellis

1. This series’ author has a background in both Anthropology and Archaeology, which explains the level of detail put into the descriptions of extinct races such as the Jaghut and their destruction at the hands of the immortal T’lan Imass, the ancestors of the modern humans of cities such as Darujhistan and Malaz. The series also features a detailed system of magical “Warrens” where mortals may encounter gods such as Oponn, Shadowthrone, and Hood. FTP, identify this long-running epic fantasy series by Canadian Author Steven Erikson.

ANSWER: Malazan Book of the Fallen.

1. There is no general agreement among biologists as to whether or not this event should be regarded as merely an ongoing part of the Quaternary Extinction Event at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, or as a separate event. It has been seen most spectacularly in island areas such as New Zealand, Hawaii, Madagascar and Mauritius, where one of its’ most famous victim species was driven to extinction by human settlement during the mid-Seventeenth century. FTP, identify this ongoing extinction, characterized by the disappearance of species in the face of human activity and climate change.

ANSWER: Holocene Extinction

1. This genre was named by Timothy Findley in response to an interviewer who said his book The Last of the Crazy People resembled those written by William Faulkner and Flannery O’ Connor. Works tend to be set in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and use horrific, grotesque or supernatural elements to critique the dour Puritanism dominant in the area at the time. FTP, name this prominent subgenre of Canadian Literature set in the region around Toronto.

ANSWER: Southern Ontario Gothic

1. A key point in Britain’s case during this event was that Chief Maquinna had sold some land to British Trader John Meares in the winter of 1788, about a year before this conflict broke out when Esteban Jose Martinez, having claimed the land in question for Spain, seized several British ships who intended to trade furs and build a settlement. George Vancouver served as the British negotiator during, FTP, what territorial dispute between Britain and Spain that takes its’ name from an inlet & island off the West Coast of British Columbia.

ANSWER: The Nootka Crisis

1. This city is the seat of Multnomah County even though it extends into Clackhamas County to the south and Washington County to the west. It has been suggested as the new “Beer Capital of the World” since it now has more breweries than even Cologne, Germany, and the Willamette Valley in which it is located is perfect for growing hops and barley. Named after the Maine hometown of one of its’ founders, FTP identify this Pacific Northwest metropolis, the largest city in Oregon.

ANSWER: Portland

1. The use of these dates back to at least to 1948 when The New Republic reported that Thomas Dewey was using one. Gilles Duceppe had to acknowledge problems with his campaign in 1997 after his got lost. Mechanical problems with Dalton McGuinty’s didn’t bode well for his chances in the 1999 Ontario election. Ironically, one of these was recently repaired at a garage in Cornwall, Ontario named Harper Diesel. FTP, identify this mode of transportation used by politicians on cross-country tours which Michael Ignatieff recently had trouble with.

ANSWER: Campaign Bus (accept obvious equivalents; also, give ten honesty points to Brock Stephenson if he fesses up to having had something to do with Ignatieff’s bus breaking down)

1. Antoine-Etex created a small bronze bas-relief of this painting to adorn the artist’s grave in Pere Lachaise Cemetery. The painter made exhaustive visits to Parisian morgues and hospitals to ensure he depicted corpses realistically, and he also made a scale model of the titular object. The Argus appears in the upper-right hand corner while Jean Charles tries to signal it; this painting captures the moment of despair as The Argus passes by and ruins any hope of rescue. FTP, identify this painting of the aftermath of a shipwreck by Theodore Gericault.

ANSWER: The Raft of the Medusa

1. Herodotus believed that these people still lived off the coast of Libya. His description has led scholars to suggest that they took their name from their diet of either one of the ziziphus genus, or from the blue water-lily of the Nile. This last seems likely since it was used in Egyptian religious ceremonies for its’ soporific and possibly psychotropic properties. FTP, identify this people, described in The Odyssey, whose diet caused travelers to forget their homes and family.

ANSWER: The Lotus Eaters

1. Frtiz Zwicky coined this term in the early twentieth century; however, the phenomenon had been observed as early as 1006 by Egyptian and Chinese astronomers. Modern astronomy categorizes them according to the absorption lines of elements in their spectra. Those that lack hydrogen are classified Type I, while Type IIb show lines of hydrogen when the explosion first appears but gradually become dominated by helium. FTP, identify this type of stellar explosion that is more energetic and explosive than a nova.

ANSWER: Supernova

1. A prominent English casualty of this battle was the Duke of York, a grandson of Edward III. It is not clear whether the only successful French action of this battle, an attack on the English supply trains, was a deliberate part of the French battle plan or merely an act of local brigandage, nor is it clear whether it was this French action that led the English to slaughter most of their French prisoners. FTP, identify this English victory of the Hundred Years’ War, immortalized by Shakespeare in Henry V?

ANSWER: Agincourt

1. The words “Come in!” were mistakenly added to one passage of this work by Samuel Beckett, to whom the author was dictating. Sketches which would be incorporated into it appeared over fifteen years before its’ eventual publication; these included “Kevin’s Orisons” and “Saint Patrick and the Druid”. Its themes of rebirth are alluded to by it’s title, taken from a music hall ballad about an Irish hod carrier who is revived from the death by a bottle of whiskey. FTP, Humphrey Earwicker deals with the consequences of a mysterious sin in Phoenix Park in what final work of James Joyce?

ANSWER: Finnegans Wake

20. According to one story, this nation’s last military campaign, in 1866, ended with 80 soldiers leaving and 81 coming back because they had made a friend along the way. Along with Uzbekistan, it is one of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world, but it is home to over 80,000 registered companies, more than double the population of its’ capital, Vaduz. FTP, identify this European principality that borders Austria and Switzerland in the Upper Rhine Valley.

ANSWER: Lichtenstein

1. Among groups objecting to changes to this include religious groups who claim that it helps them to target charitable services in their communities. CMAJ objected on the grounds that it is a useful tool for gathering health data, whilc major municipalities objecting to the changes include Edmonton and Toronto. Canada’s Privacy Commissioner claims to have received very few complaints’ about its’ intrusiveness, but Industry Minister Tony Clement says that he has received “dozens” of messages of support for the changes. FTP, identify this method of surveying Canadians which in 2011 will be voluntary rather than mandatory.

ANSWER: Long-Form Census

21. In Chinese it is called "mî zì qí" ("mee TZUH chee") meaning "rice word flag," due to its resemblance to the character for "rice." When correctly constructed it has neither vertical nor horizontal symmetry due to the offset in the red diagonal elements, which were also the most recently added to the design in 1801. A debate over its nomenclature hinges on what it should be called when it is not flown on a ship, with formalists insisting that it be called as a "Flag," rather than its better-known appellation. For ten points, what is this flag found in the canton of many other flags including Fiji, Hawaii, New Zealand, and Manitoba?

ANSWER: The Union Jack or Union Flag